7.31.2012

"People always ask me: 'You have so much confidence - where did that come from?' It came from me. One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl.... It doesn't have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see. Your body is your temple, your home, and you must decorate it."

Gabourey Sidibe

*This post was RIPPED OFF - HOOK, LINE AND SINKER - from La Dolce Vita. I tried to resist, but it was so perfect, I could not!

I have been irresponsible, remiss and downright neglectful of my poor, tired feet!

My heels - especially - were looking entirely too hillbilly.

I am happy to say that I got busy with this nifty little Pink Pedro Callus Stone from Tweezerman and my heels are now smooth and unembarrassing!

I also needed to get serious about moisturization. I hate putting lotion on my feet. It always makes them feel hot. But I bit the bullet. I find I like the Gold Bond Foot Cream and I promise that I remember to put it on at least 65% of the time....

And for my cute little toes, I admit that I've grown tired of my go - to shades and wanted something else. I quite like this pale lavender, Lady Like, from Essie.

7.19.2012

The nice people up at the model homes have put a WHOLE CONTAINER OF PUPPY DOG TREATS OUT IN FRONT OF THEIR OFFICE!!!!

TREATS! IN A BIG BOX!!!

FREE!!!!

RIGHT. ON. THE. STREET!!!!!

Treats! In a Box!!

When we go walking, we have learned to navigate over there no matter where we are in our neighborhood!

Of course, our Mama is sucking ALL of the HAPPY out of this development.

First, she will only let us go up there once a day.

Once we discovered the treats, we had a meeting and decided that we would tell her that we want to walk at least 20 times a day in order to keep ourselves at a 'healthy weight'. (We still don't know what a 'healthy weight' is and we still don't care but we figure if that's something Mama wants us to have and lying about our motives will help us keep from starving to death, we may as well play her.)

But she won't let us walk 20 times a day. She said 3 times a day is plenty and we still only get one trip to the treat box.

Not to be thwarted, we switched tactics and told her that we need to go walking and 'potty' 20 times a day - but she said we can go in the back yard.

*heavy sigh*

Do you see what we have to deal with?

Then, since we only get to go once, we decided that we would ask to eat 20 treats per visit. But Mama said no and she will only give us one treat each.

Can you believe that?

Mama says that we have to be 'polite' and save some of the treats for all the other losers puppies who live in our neighborhood. We have explained to her over and over that that is not how it works. The 'dog rules' are clear: if we are there and the other dogs are not there, then we get to eat ALL of the treats.

But no matter how many times we explain to her, she still will not let us have more than one each. And when we insisted she threatened not to let us have any treats at all!

*heavy sigh*

Our Mama is so difficult.

And then - before she will even give us our one *piddly* little treat (Milk Bones, by the way) she makes us sit all the way down on our butts before she will let us have them.

All. The. Way. Down. On. Our. Butts.

We have explained to her that we object to obeying in principal and that we find sitting down and waiting politely tedious and that the treats will be in our mouths much faster if we both stand up against her legs while we eat our treats. But she says we have scratchy toes - so she makes us sit down.

What's a scratchy toe when you're starving to death?

Sitting and Unhappy

The bright spot is that any time we can get The Boy to walk us, he will always take us up there and he will at least give us two treats each sometimes and he doesn't even make us sit on our butts first.

He's a sucker our friend, you know.

We've been mildly successful in getting him around to our way of thinking. He also slips us wheat thins and bananas when Mama isn't looking - but don't tell her that or she will 'speak to him' about it.

We hate it when Mama has to 'speak' to someone. It usually either means that we are in trouble or that she's going to cut off one of our perfectly good scams.

It occurred to me the other day that the happiness in my life is making it's way into my handbag.

I mean, lately I've gone from an almost all black bag to a veritable rainbow!

Currently, we're rocking the Reed Krakoff 510 tote - I swear, this may be the best bag I've ever owned.

Don't get me wrong, I love all of them and I hate to play favorites - but when it comes to durability, style, fabulosity and downright practicality this tote cannot be beaten.

It's big enough to hold everything and then some! I bought it at the Reed Krakoff after Christmas sale last year (at a substantial discount) and MAN is it worth every penny! I'm saving myself for this year's sale. I hope I won't be disappointed.

And the leather is like butter....

Anywho -

The buttery cool black exterior of the bag belies the PARTY that is going on inside!

I mean, look at this:

How's that for a colorful bag?

This is my new little wallet from Kate Spade (curtesy of the sale being on SALE - y'all know I can't resist that). And although blue really isn't my thing this vibrant turquoise really just tripped my trigger.

And the best part about it is that the lining coordinates with the makeup bag that was also on sale!

As for bags for the bag I'm still happily rocking the two bag system. It really is the only way to go.

The taller bag in the back (A super fun orange and hot pink little thing I picked up at Target) contains all the ugly necessities of life: Neosporin, Advil, safety pins, tampons, Tums, bandaids and dental floss.

The cutesy makeup bag in the front has the actual makeup - although I am a minimalist where this is concerned. I just have never been able to carry enough stuff to redo my whole face - I just don't see the point.

Generally speaking I carry a compact, some concealer, blush, a portable blush brush and several kinds of lip gloss and matte lipstick - most are from NARS. I really like NARS products and their product names are fun. Currently in my bag I have Deep Throat blush, Sex Machine lip stick and Risky Business lip gloss. Hah!

Then we have my moleskin notebook (can't live without it and always pink), my card case for business cards and calling cards and of course, my iPhone.

Because I am an Apple whore.

My reading glasses - which I need more and more these days .... at least they're cute.

Gum, multiple tubes of carmax lip balm (totally addicted), Sharpies and a hi-lighter. It's really surprising to me how often I use that little hi-lighter. I'd also like to say that I don't chew a lot of gum - because I think it's gauche to be chomping on gum in public - but it's nice to have a piece in the privacy of your car when you want it...

And yeah, I did say 'gauche'. It's the word I wanted.

Court house badge.... What can I say, it gets me in....

Oh - there's other stuff in there. I always have sunglasses, a snack, a book... Sometimes I have an umbrella and a drink. Often I throw my court files in there. The beauty of this particular handbag is that it'll hold it all - and look good at the same time.

Now that The Boy is in my life, I once again have a reason to wear cute dresses on dates (which he appreciates because he's a lovely man) and I also have a couple of weddings and related events coming up - so this is perfect. The color is yummy and the sale price was yummy too!

7.12.2012

We LOVE our Miss Rebecca. She gives us smooches and belly rubs and sometimes babysits for us when Mama goes away. She is our best-est friend.

Mama and our Aunt M and Aunt Julie threw Miss Rebecca a wedding shower and we were allowed to work the room after the presents were opened.

We were skeptical of participating in a 'shower' because we just had a bath and we didn't want another one, even if Mama was serving refreshments....

But Mama told us that 'shower' was just another word for 'party with food, punch and presents' and by the time Mama let us out of puppy prison in the upstairs guest room we were ready to suspend our disbelief.

Well! Our whole house was FULL of ladies and some of them petted us and then our Aunt M slipped us a biscuit! Aunt M is our best-est friend, too.

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon and we were certainly happy to do our part to make Miss Rebecca's shower a little fuzzier.

The June issue of More Magazine had a great article called 'Secrets of the Super Resilient' which I enjoyed very much.

I particularly liked the following passage. The victim of a shark attack discusses the trauma of the attack and it's aftermath. Her observations on happiness will stay with me and bear repeating here:

"People love to say that one can choose to be happy. I was frightened to my core. I was in a tremendous amount of pain, and the pain meds made me throw up. I was afraid that [my husband] might think I looked hideous and stop loving me. I was afraid that if he left me, I would be destitute.... Simple tasks such as dressing myself and inserting contact lenses and preparing food and washing dishes and tying shoes and learning to write with my left hand were overwhelming."

"But she had a strategy, and it involved using her body to control her emotions: 'Every morning when I woke with a cloak of fear and despair around me, I chose to smile. Sometimes tears were streaming down my face, but I forced my lips into a big smile, and I made a decision to be happy. It was really powerful. It was one of the few things I could control.'"

At the heart of all of [her] resilient qualities is an attitude toward life that I've encountered over and over again in the survivors who return to life most successfully after trauma. One of the first things she ever said to me reveals a great deal about that attitude: 'I'm really lucky.' She went on: 'I don't regret that this happened to me. What surprises me is how something so horrific has been such a positive experience in my life. I would never want my husband or my parents to go through that again, but for me, it was transforming.'"

Every morning, she explains, 'I faced a crossroads. Had I chosen to give in to despair each time instead of forcing myself to project happiness, I would have slid into self-pity. Now, no matter what my circumstances are in the future, I know the formula for getting through whatever hits me. I know I can cope."

I love this. And I have thought it about myself.

When I think back about the bad stuff in my life I know that I made the choice to get over things, to learn from them and to be happy.

Don't get me wrong, I think I spent a fair number of years (yes, I said years) pitying myself - especially after the divorce. But ultimately, those bad things PUSHED me to a different and better place.

Hi! I'm Tonya and this is my blog. I am an attorney and I live with two very spoiled Pembroke Welsh Corgis in Charlotte, North Carolina. As somewhat of a surprise to myself - and others - I have reached a certain age and failed to marry. Horrors! Don't worry, though, I'm not dead yet. There may be hope for me. In the meantime, I've decided to explore the life that you have when you are a girl with no husband and no babies. What happens when the choices you make lead you away from the life you thought you'd have? What sights can be seen from the road less taken? This is where I'll share my thoughts on life, love, law, corgis and my never ending quest for the perfectly appointed home.